Child Poverty in Kenya – A Multidimensional Approach

It was a pleasure to support UNICEF Kenya and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in producing the CHILD POVERTY IN KENYA report, which will be published in December of this year.

It is the first of its kind in Kenya and is being launched at a crucial development juncture, just before the design and development of the Third Medium Term Plan (2018–2022) of Vision 2030 and following the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda. The child poverty report presents the findings of multidimensional child deprivation analysis based on the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. This is the first study of its kind to incorporate a qualitative research component. Breastfeeding mothers, parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, community health workers, and county sector heads in Turkana, Kakamega, and Kitui were interviewed during August 2016 to give a voice to the quantitative research findings.

Helping children avoid poverty and overcome its damaging effects will make a huge difference not only to their lives but also to the lives of their families, communities and ultimately their country. The evidence of child deprivation from this study provides a strong opportunity for concerted, comprehensive responses targeting not only social services but also interventions to address the plight of children unable to realize their rights and fulfill their basic needs.

In the context of SDGs, the study is also very timely to provide Kenya with critical baseline information for monitoring the SDGs 1 and 10. The design of the Kenya Medium Term Plan III and the next County Integrated Development Plans and other sectoral strategies will benefit greatly from the evidence and deep analysis of child poverty based on nonmonetary indicators presented in this report